Policy Matters: More progress needed in womens representation in government – Journal Record

Shiloh Kantz

Friday marks the 102nd anniversary of the certification of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote. In honor of this milestone, I wanted to take a look at Oklahomas role in the process, as well as explore how far women have come and how far we still have yet to go in ensuring our voices are heard.

In 1918, Oklahoma voters approved State Question 97, which established a constitutional right for women to vote in all elections. This milestone happened two years before the nation formally adopted the 19th Amendment, and Oklahoma was one of only 15 states at that time to provide women with the right to vote in all elections.

Oklahomas state question, however, didnt fully address the inequities facing women. Oklahoma law continued to prohibit women from holding state executive office until voters passed SQ 302 in 1942, and Black women didnt get voting rights until the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965.

In the same year the 19th Amendment was ratified, Oklahoma pioneer Alice Robertson was elected to Congress, making her only the second woman voted to the U.S. House of Representatives. (More than eight decades would pass before Oklahoma elected another female congresswoman Mary Fallin in 2006.)

Even though womens voting rights have been in effect for more than a century, women still are consistently underrepresented in our local, state, and federal government. While women make up more than half of our countrys population, the majority of elected and appointed government positions are held by men.

In Oklahoma, only about 1 in 5 state lawmakers are women, while a handful of women currently hold statewide office. The representation levels are also comparatively sparse at the county and municipal levels. The national group Represent Women ranked Oklahoma 23rd in its 2022 report on gender parity, earning the state a D-grade for the 10th consecutive year.

That we dont have more female representation at all levels of government clearly indicates there is more we can do to diversify representation to match our population more closely. Solutions start with nonpartisan drawing of districts to prevent gerrymandering and reducing the impact of money in politics. We could also modernize our election process through open primaries, ranked choice voting, same-day voter registration, online voting, expanded early voting, or other solutions that can increase more equitable representation.

While we can measure some progress during the last 100-plus years, its only a start toward creating equitable representation.

Shiloh Kantz is interim executive director of the Oklahoma Policy Institute.

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Policy Matters: More progress needed in womens representation in government - Journal Record